Monthly Archives: October 2010

“In my view, the Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government ought to be instructed. No truth is more evident to my mind than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people.” Noah Webster

The phrase – “separation of church and state” apparently was not seen in the constitution by Noah Webster. As a matter of fact we find a quote about elections that we should heed today.

“When you become entitled to exercise the right of voting for public officers, let it be impressed on your mind that God commands you to choose for rulers, “just men who will rule in the fear of God.” The preservation of [our] government depends on the faithful discharge of this Duty; if the citizens neglect their Duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted; laws will be made, not for the public good so much as for selfish or local purposes; corrupt or incompetent men will be appointed to execute the Laws; the public revenues will be squandered on unworthy men; and the rights of the citizen will be violated or disregarded. If [our] government fails to secure public prosperity and happiness, it must be because the citizens neglect the Divine Commands, and elect bad men to make and administer the Laws.” -History of United States by Noah Webster.

He is teaching that God should be involved in the affairs of government. This is quite contrary to what some would have us believe today. Of course the ignorance of this man that began the first newspaper and put together the first dictionary of 70,000 words is astounding. His knowledge was extremely limited, even if he did attend Yale at the age of 16 and did go to law school. This man, no doubt was better educated than 75% of our college graduates today. Technorati Tags: Noah Webster, God, government, corrupt

How often we find a friend or loved one is upset with us and we become concerned; what have I done to offend, what have I done to upset, what have I said, what did I neglect to do. We thrive upon being loved, and liked in this world. For what ever reason we desire that most people we meet like us. We look for approval and affirmation for who we are and what we do.

Upon finding that we have offended or made someone angry, we investigate. We want to make things right and re-establish that relationship that has been damaged. We go to great lengths to repair this damage. We will take a great deal of time to make things right.

What about our relationship with God. Are we diligent in making sure that our Godly relationship is as close as it should be? Our scripture relates two different relationships. Daniel who was in constant communication with God and Belshazzar who did not know God. A mysterious hand wrote on the wall – thou are weighed in the balances and found wanting. Now this revelation of a hand caused consternation with Belshazzar. I find it interesting where that consternation drove him to. That was Daniel, the man of God.

I find it most interesting that a person of God can live their life in such a way that people notice they are Godly people. These Godly people are ridiculed, laughed at and made fun of behind their back. These same people that disregard Godly people, disregard God in the same way. Let flash further back in the Old Testament to a man named Noah. I have a picture in my minds eye about what took place between Noah and the people of his day.[Noah, what ya doin there big boy. Oh! building an Ark huh? What is an Ark? Oh! a big boat that floats in water. How you goin ta get it to the water? Oh! the water will come to you!!! How? RAIN? what’s rain?] 80 years later. [ Noah, where is that rain????? HA, HA, HA, you my friend are a funny guy, you said that 80 years ago and it hasn’t happened yet. It ain’t never goin to happen. God? what God. Let us “eat, drink, and be merry.” Does that sound familiar? Just like today.

What is sad is, there will be those that call them selves Christians whose relationship with the Lord is severely lacking. Then when the hand of God comes against them, they run to those that have that stable, close relationship with God. They want intercession. Here is an admonition, you are more Godly than I am, intercede for me with God.

There are those like Belshazzar and those that have no relationship with God, even deny there is a God are unprepared for dramatic events. Noah, because of his relationship with God was prepared for the flood. Daniel knew exactly where to turn to find the answer to the hand. Do you not find it amazing that a wicked, hard drinking king that would not even acknowledge the God of the Jews would turn to the one man in his kingdom that could give him answers. There will be those today, much in the same condition that will do the same thing when push comes to shove. When family tragedy strikes, they run to the one living the Godly life.

I guess the question I have is – Dear God – are you upset with me.

Whether you are saved or not maybe you need to ask that question – have I been weighed in the balances and found wanting?

I Samuel 9:6And he said unto him, Behold now, there is in this citya man of God, and he is an honourable man:…

What an honour to have a name that gendered such renown and respect. A country boy, (Saul) and a servant have heard of this man Samuel. Here was the place to ask hard questions. This man had a reputation had spread through towns, cities, and countryside. The reputation of knowledge, humility and Godliness clung to Samuel as a garment. What a blessing to carry the title – man of God. We feel proud to carry the Christian and the luster of this moniker has faded and become un-recognizable. A title of reproach that was reserved for those that diligently and faithfully followed the teaching and clean righteous living that reflected Jesus as close a possible, has been besmirch and bedraggled by being dragged through the muck and mire of unfaithfullness, infidelity and unreflective living. To be known as a man of God is an honour that few deserve. We add to this name the term – honourable man and we see one that has a superlative closeness to God.

Honor, integrity, and adhering to ethical and moral principles are the marks of an honourable man. How many would consider themselves honourable and yet not have moral principles. How many fudge on ethics and consider themselves honourable man. These are things we should all strive for and continually work on. We never attain this standard by self proclamation. Others must recognise these traits and characteristics and they will then tell others. May we desire to gain the titles – MAN OF GOD/HONOURABLE MAN.

“Why is it that, next to the birthday of the Saviour of the world,your most joyous and most venerated festival returns on thisday the Fourth of July? Is it not that, in the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is indissolublylinked with the birthday of the Saviour? That it forms a leading event in the progress of the Gospel dispensation?Is it not that the Declaration of Independence firstorganized the social compact on the foundation of theRedeemer’s mission upon earth? That it laid the cornerstoneof human government upon the first precepts of Christianity?”John Quincy Adams, when he delivered a Forth of Julyspeech at NewburyportMassachusetts.

All most all religions teach that baptism saves, helps to save, or is in some way essential to salvation. This cannot be sustained by the Scriptures. Baptism is NOT essential to salvation.

I. Some Scriptures used to prrove that baptism is essential to salvation.A. Acts 2:38: “Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptised every one of youin the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”

Examine the verse: In the previous verse Peter had been asked: “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” Notice it is not “what shall we do to be saved?” Peter told them what they must do. “Repent” is second person plural. “Every one of you” is first person singular: thus, only those who had repented were instructed to be baptised. “For the remissi9on of sins” refers to those who were to be baptised. This does not indicate that through baptism they would receive remission of sins but that they were to be baptised with reference to remission of sins received through repentance. The Greek word “eis” is the word translated FOR. In this case it means “with reference to.” See Matthew 12:41 where the word is translated “at.” The same word is used in I Corinthians 10:2; “And were all baptised unto (eis) Moses.” Scripture must not be made to contradict scripture.

B. Romans 6:3; “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptised into (eis) Jesus Christ were baptised into (eis) his death?”

The teaching is that of being baptised with reference to Jesus and with reference to His death. Surely none believe that a person is literally baptised into His death. The Israelites (I Cor. 10:1) were baptised with reference to Moses and not literally into him.

C. Galatians 3:27; “For as many of you as have been baptised into Christ have put on Christ.”

The same Greek word “eis” is translated “into” and means the same as in the previous verses, “with reference to.” The argument put forth by some is that the phrase “have put on Christ” speaks of a spiritual birth and therefore it means baptised into Christ or baptismal salvation. There is a similar phrase in Romans 13:14: “But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof.” This is admonition to a people already justified by faith (Rom. 5:1), and a people already baptised (Rom. 6:3,4). They were to put on Christ in their daily walk and daily life. (Rom. 6:11-13), therefore the phrase “put on Christ” does not mean salvation by baptism.

Those addressed in this verse had become children of God by faith (Gal. 3:26). They had put on the livery of a Christian; had dressed up that Christ might be seen in them – that is, in their obedience.

II. If Baptism is essential to salvation then the following is also true. A. It would make the preacher the mediator between God and man. There is one mediator (I Tim. 2:5).

B. It would make it impossible for one to be saved in a hospital, on the battlefield, or any place away from a preacher and water for baptism. No matter how much one might repent, pray, or believe on Jesus, he would be lost forever if he were not baptised.

C. It would make Paul to leave out something in his address to the Athenians. Acts 17:30; “And the times of this ignorance God winked at but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.” Why didn’t he add “and be baptised”?

D. It would make Paul guilty of rejoicing that he had left off an essential part of the salvation of some of the Corinthians. I Corinthians 1:14: “I thank God that I baptised none of you, but Crispus and Gaius.”

E. If baptism is essential to salvation then salvation must be both by works and by grace.Baptism is an act or work of righteousness. Matthew 3:15: “And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness.”(See also Titus 3:5; Eph 2:8-10; Rom. 11:6).The unregenerate man cannot be subject to the law of God, for he is under the law of sin and death (Rom. 8:2-8. He must repent and believe in Jesus.

F. Some object that baptism is an act of faith, therefore acceptable to God though the candidate be unregenerate. If it is an act of faith, who had the faith? If the one being baptised has it before he goes into the water, then he is already saved, before baptism. I John 5:1: “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.” If the one going into the water does not have faith, then the very act would be sinful. Romans 14:23: “For whatsoever is not of faith is sin.”

This puts the “baptism essential to salvation” advocate in a dilemma. If he baptises one who says he has faith in Christ then he baptises one who is already saved. If he baptises one who says he has no faith in Christ then he baptises one to whom even baptism is a sin.

G. If baptism is essential to salvation then the following examples are meaningless.

III. Scriptures which teach salvation but which make no mention of baptism.

Rom. 1:16,17; 3:21-26; Eph. 2:8-10; Acts 10:43; John 3:14-16; 3:18; 3:36; 5:24; 6:40; Acts 13:38,39,48; Rom. 5:1,2; I Cor. 3:8; Gal. 3:26; Phi. 3:9; Rom. 10:4,8,9-11. In all of these passages baptism is omitted. if it were necessary to salvation surely it would have been mentioned.

Romans 8:35 “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution,, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long: we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

The – Christian Post – gave a headline by – Nathan Black – RESCUED CHILEAN MINER:GOD WON. What a glorious recognition of God’s great power. The Chilean President thanked the families of the miners “who maintained faith – this faith that ended up moving mountains.” Mario Sepulveda said, “I was with God and I was with the devil. But God won. I held on to God’s hand. At no point in time did I doubt that God would get me out of there.”

Survival items were sent down through a four inch hole including Scripture. One 19 year old man, Jimmy Sanchez wrote, “There are actually 34 of us because God has never left us down here.” Others working on the rescue effort also acknowledged divine intervention.

What wonderful expression of the work of God with His people. A courageous president that acknowledge those that, by prayer brought God in to comfort those that were waiting and to wrap His arms around those that were trapped. I thank the Lord for a President that was not ashamed to acknowledge Divine intervention in this marvelous rescue. Paul’s words, while not needing to be vindicated, were.

What could our nation be if we were to acknowledge the greatness and goodness of God; and our President and other leaders of our nation would acknowledge God’s work and wonder. What a change our nation could experience. Class warfare would be over. May we as a people recognize the need for God and turn back to Him. He is our only salvation. Let us not be ashamed of the Gospel of Christ.

“Providence has given to our people the choiceof their rulers, and it is the duty, as wellas the privilege and interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians fortheir rulers.” – John Jay

This flies in the face of so many today that believe it might be economy or social issueswhere we need to make decisions. There are those “Christians” that see a labelof religion and decisions are made upon the label. The true test for one thatclaims to be a child of God and faithful to the word is their stand onabortion and homosexuality. These are very well covered in the Word of God. Why not base our decisions upon these todoctrines as stated by the Word of God.It is a better measurement of the relationship one haswith God than mostany other except,Is Christ yourpersonalSaviour.

Song of Solomon 8:6 – “Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm:for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave:the coals thereof are coals of fire, whichhave a most vehement flame.

The love of Christ is a seal to those that believe. This love that is strong as death not only seals our soul but His seal is on our arm as a sign to others we are His. This story is replicated in the New Testament where the church is called the light of the world and the salt and Paul expressed to the Ephesian brethren the seal of the Holy Spirit that kept them till the day redemption. Based upon this love, our forefathers in the faith faced death by drowning and fire. They faced many privations and destructions that we only read about today. How strong is our love when compared to the love of God in sending His only begotten Son to die in our stead?

There is no strength in unbelief. Even the unbelief of what is false is no source of might. It is the truth shining from behind that gives the strength to disbelieve. GEORGE MCDONALD

It is very popular today to dismiss truth as unimportant. The Bible, the whole Bible, both Old Testament and New Testament were given to us by God. He has said that it is His word and true. Revelation 22:19 gives solemn warning about God’s Word. “And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

Now take a look at the book of Genesis and tell me if some one messed with the Word of God. Eve said, we can’t even touch it (added to the word). The serpent said, “ye shall not surely die:” A play on words that is misleading and therefore a lie. When we stretch the truth, diminish the truth, twist the truth, say part of the truth and leave out some things to deceive, that is a lie the same as a flat out lie is a lie. Doing any of this makes one a liar. There are a lot of religious liars today. Some stand in pulpits and others sit in pews. Iregardless of their station in life, position in business, or religious zeal, if it is a lie it is a lie.

What was God’s reaction to the lies of the serpent and the woman. He cursed them! He cursed man, He cursed woman, He cursed the serpent, and He cursed the earth. Do you get the picture, that God hates liars and loves truth. Proverbs 6:16 gives us some insight. “The six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, A heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.” Take a look a the list that a liar is added to. Hands that commit murder. Maybe we need to take a serious look at what we believe the Bible to say. Let us get ourselves on solid ground when it comes to the truth of God’s Word.

EXODUS 34:14 – “For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:

God reveals that He has characteristics that many people do think about, or care for. Many today want to dwell on the characteristic of a loving God, which He is. To simply look upon a loving God without knowing the depth of God, continually being shallow in knowledge is not good. Now I Peter 2:2 says – “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:” We know that babies leave the bottle and move on to mashed potatoes, green beans and meatloaf. There are too many bottle baby Christians that have not matured. Paul says in I Corinthians 3:2 – “I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet are ye able.” Paul is not applauding bottle babies but scolding them. Notice his comments in Hebrews 5:12,13 – “For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth mild is unskillful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.

When we speak of the jealousy of God and the worship that is due Him, we often speak of paganism. Maybe the story of Jeroboam and Rehoboam. Rehoboam, the son of Solomon was to be ruler over the kingdom. The people made a plea and Rehoboam rejected that plea which brought a division in the nation. Jeroboam took 10 of the northern tribes as his kingdom. Jeroboam knew that the place to worship was in Jerusalem. He also knew that if the people of the northern 10 tribes went there to worship they would rejoin Judah and once again become one nation. Jeroboam had a solution.

Jeroboam took the religion of the Jews and made some small changes. He replaced the priests God had chosen with his priests that had been chosen from the men of a base sort. They were more wicked and served as priests. Jeroboam also gave the people two places to worship. They did not have to go to Jerusalem. Then he gave them visible, tangible objects to worship.

Notice the implications here. He made God’s representatives more like the people. He made worship very convenient and the people became content. Last but not least, he gave them something they could see which pleased the people. We have the same thing today. If we can make things convenient and throw in the rest we can have a crowd. I wonder if God was jealous in this situation?

When Jesus met the Samaritan woman at the well, Jesus words are revealed unto us in John 4:22 – “Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.” Jesus was, in essence, telling this woman that her worship was unacceptable. There was the form of the worship of the Jews that the Samaritans were practicing. The problem was mixing in a little of the world. Notice verse 24 – “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”

Is there the possibility that a lot of what we call worship today is unacceptable to God? II Timothy 3:16 says – “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good works.” Hebrews 13:8 – “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and for ever. God doesn’t change. God’s Son doesn’t change. God and His Son Jesus is jealous over our worship. ARE WE ACCEPTABLE IN OUR WORSHIP? The woman of Samaria was not.

The deepness of the Word

There is, today, a move away from the deep endearing knowledge of God and what He wants us to know. We are shallow in knowledge, relationship and living. We can no longer call our selves Christians because we do not pass the test of "Christ like." We want what we want and tend to move through the buffet line of the Bible, picking and choosing our desires. By this we allow our selves to indulge in worldly thought and actions.

We are called to be a separate people, distinct from the world and its practices. Those that call themselves Christians today practice worldly things and are no longer identifiable as Christians.